Figure 1.

Principle of an electronic early warning alerting system for acute kidney injury

The detection element of an electronic alerting system is an algorithm built into the laboratory program, which can be used to compare current serum creatinine measurements with previously taken ones. Wherever possible, serum creatinine measurements are considered before inpatient admission and patients needing chronic dialysis are excluded. During the alerting process, treating phsycians can be informed about a reduction in renal function in various ways. One way is a simple list of affected patients with or without mention of the severity grade of their AKI. Another way is by using technically sophisticated early warning systems that will disrupt doctors‘ routine practice briefly and are linked to concrete recommendations to treating physicians. Use and benefit of the AKI alerting system should be checked at regular intervals, and feedback should be given to users (13).

AKI, acute kidney injury